Category Archives: Cyber Statecraft

gAtO lOcO- I know conspiracy theory’s but this one stop me cold. I was looking at a newscast and the NSA Prism logo came on, OK pink Floyd – dark side of the moon rip-off but something caught my eye – the triangle on the dollar bill and the Prism logo triangle ummmm…. – an all seeing triangle -what every one tells about the Illuminate logo. If you apply a prism to data -it’s the same thing you grab all the light/data and filter it down to different data streams, categories -colors. I can see the meaning of the logo for prism now, wonder how much they paid a no-bid contractor for that logo.

—a new world order – cyberspace —

Then I remember the CISPA fight we had a while back and on one of them it said. “Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act” that was pretty much the same thing we find now in what Prism does with phone and data collection. So my question is, if Prism has been going on since the Patriot Act and the NSA has been doing this legally.

Why CISPA? Why SOPA? Why PIPA? Come on Prism is legal so why all this data sharing when the government was doing it under our nose. I think what this kid Shoden did was stupid, but it’s his choice and he will live with this one way or another. What he showed us has opened a discussion that I think was needed in the cyber world.

Cyber society is the new norm and we older-people must accept that these young men and women know this technology and how to use it better than we do. Cyberspace belongs to everyone today and I hope we together can change things for the better. But I don’t think the powers that be will give over so easily. Prsim is a perfect example of how the cold war mentality has change with the digital domain becoming more real. We will not recognize the Internet 10 years from now, but if the Illuminate have there way they will be watching us – gAtO lOcO oUt…

gAtO rEaD-The government is buying hackers exploits – not to stop these sophisticated cyber exploits but to use these tools against it’s own people- they are using the tools to infiltrate computer networks worldwide, leaving behind spy programs and cyber-weapons that can disrupt data or damage systems.

The core problem: Spy tools and cyber-weapons rely on vulnerabilities in existing software programs, and these hacks would be much less useful to the government if the flaws were exposed through public warnings. So the more the government spends on offensive techniques, the greater its interest in making sure that security holes in widely used software remain unrepaired. So your computer is vulnerable and the governments knows it and will not disclose this information, but use it against you to place cookies,RAT’s or other spyware into your computer -maybe- I trust our government don’t you?

If you got nothing to hide, you should not be worried… right????

So our Tax dollars are going to Hackers and cyber criminals that sell these exploits all over the world. As a tax payer I don’t like this part at all. But the worst part is by us taking the lead of cyber offensive cyber tools -example.. Stuxnet – it is a plan book for other countries to do the same. So what we do in cyberspace has become socially acceptable to do in cyberspace and then we bitch about China. I don’t get it – mEoW

Officials have never publicly acknowledged engaging in offensive cyber-warfare, though the one case that has beenmost widely reported – the use of a virus known as Stuxnet to disrupt Iran’s nuclear-research program – was lauded in Washington. Officials confirmed to Reuters previously that the U.S. government drove Stuxnet’s development, and the Pentagon is expanding its offensive capability through the nascent Cyber Command.

Then you have the Prism disclosure and PoW- US Cyber Agents Disrupt Publication of Popular Al Qaeda Magazine – This means that Obama’s cyber military is potentially capable of more targeted attacks, specified at damaging particular pieces of information or infrastructure. I wonder where they got those vulnerabilities? maybe some bad guys—/

What worries me is as the U.S engages in these attacks our enemies are learning what is acceptable in cyberwar. So we must be careful not to lose the fact that everyone is watching what we do and how we treat cyberspace and others governments will follow, defensive and offensive, they are learning from the best the U.S. Government -gAtO oUt

Pierluigi and gAtO met with Dare To Pass – CSI – Anthony e. Zuiker, Matthew Weinberg and Josh Cadwell to talk about the new Cyber sensation Cybergeddon in Yahoo. I never met any hollywood types but these guy’s were just dead set on making the show great, and real life. They met with Symantec/Norton folks but they were not prepared for Pierluigi’s charm and solid knowledge of what is in the deep dark web and a loco gAtO that has no rules or reason sometimes.

Let’s just say we where informative and entertaining and after the meeting Josh Cadwell CSI’s real geek -(producer, writer, director too) took the lead. I think this relationship will make the show more real, more believable and as they use real tools and how 2- of the black hackers they will be in a position to not just make a great entertainment show but also it may help other online people to become aware of the dangers of cyberspace. CSI broke new bounds and educated people to the cool science and how technology can be use for good things and help solve crimes. Cybergeddon is set to become another CSI but in cyber Space- About cyber Space— IMHO

gAtO does not even own a TV so I had no clue who CSI was- but these guy’s are really very smart, creative and played hardball when it comes to what they want. Anthony is solid TV Producer type, Matt is a cool genius and Josh has so much knowledge about Tor this that it made us feel comfortable, he is a techno class dude…he knows his technology.

This show is so different not just the content but by putting it on Yahoo they have over 50 million points as a distribution model. This is how smart movie executives are not fighting the Internet but they are embracing it and fixing it to make the model work. We all seen Kim DotCom and other pirate distribute content worldwide – movie guys saw this and said WOW we could keep the distribution cost down and get more views and that’s a big win, win for US the viewers and them the creators.

“I wanna be a Hackers” has become a new cool thing. The geek is becoming a superstar – where the football hero and the nerdy computer club president has similar status. This is new a turn for intelligence not just brute force – I’m one geek that got the beauty queen and so will others. Cybergeddon show’s that even the 4 eye nerd can become a person of power and respect – take the character “Rabbit” yeah I can say I know some hacker like him –

Give them a break guy::: I know you can’t hack everything in 15 keystrokes but they have a limited time – Viewer can have the concentration of a nat, so I will give them that and it has to be entertaining and Chloe the lady Hacker is so cool – I have a daughter that is a strong woman and can hack (a little ) but the role model this set’s up for women in technology is great –

I know of 3 cyber women (they are gonna kill me) C3nTuri0n ?@Centauri3 and ?? ?@7JGoldOrlando and Kandy- these are real live cyber queens that know their shit and are very intelligent, strong and vocal – they take no shit from anyone in cyberspace and sorry but that is cool. They dabble with SE, Bot-Nets and they know cyber security – I feel fortunate to know great ladies like this they teach me so much.. Thanks guy’s…

Cyber Women please stand Up

So my Gray hat goes out the CSI team in wanting to show such a good woman role model, this is a change and I seen it with Latino women shouting about TangoDown all over Latino countries – Women in cyberspace are gaining a lead – we men can sometimes communicate with grunts and get the message across (nOt)- I know this show can be great for equality in cyberspace.

I want to thank Lauren -Dare to Pass – Nicole – National Science Foundation for helping Pierluigi and gATO to have a chance to help in this project. el gAtO lOcO had fun talking about “The Deep Dark Web” (our Book) (available in Amazon) and security, Bitcoins market and the other fantastic cyber things we talked about.

Anthony called me up the next day and we talked about helping them on a new show about a cyber cop who dies and get’s re-born and goes out in the Dark Web to get the bad guys- I think the working title is “RESTART” it should be kinda cool. But hollywood types are all takers – pro bono- but they reap the rewards. I guess that gAtO will not be a famous star— gAtO OuT

gAtO lEaRn – On 01-01-213 we hear that Microsoft buys Skype and makes changes to allow Police surveillance. Then on 01-07-2013 we hear that a professor at the Warsaw University of Technology, Wojciech Mazurczyk, found a way to insert secret 70 bits of data and add secret information similar to steganography.

Lawful Intercept is what it’s called and we just heard punch – counter-punch from the government. I just posted about corporations and governments using offensive cyber weapons to fight crime, but this looks like just plain old spying on citizens like China, Iraq and Syria does. Skype is owned by Microsoft and we know that Word and other products have back doors for them to snoop and governments to use in criminal cases. I guess they do it the proper way and get a real FISA document to monitor us it’s citizens.

mEoW 12-30-2012 our re-elected President Obama signs FISA Warrantless Wiretapping Program. STOP – SAY WHAT. mEoW – Forget about gun control how about the privacy of citizens, are we becoming like China, Iraq and Syria the more I find out about this the crazier it becomes. I hate Skypes but now finding this out NO WAY DUDE-

I did a little digging and I found a document from the Straford hack from the LutzBoat crew and this has been on the play board for a long time. More and more governments that play nice with the America and Microsoft will have to live with the fact that they are spying on us, the people. I voted for Obama but I’m pretty sure any president would want to be able to justify this abuse of power to monitor it’s citizens, what get’s me is we scream and yell when other countries do it but here we are doing to ourselves and nobody is talking about this- Hay press wake up. I have nothing to hide but if you do you have been warned – enjoy your government spying on you behind your back- gAtO oUt

Lab Notes:

IT security continues to be the greatest challenge facing government CIOs worldwide. Most experts agree that governments require stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors for both better protection of government IT systems from intruders and for greater visibility into operators’ network traffic to fight crime. However, government systems and intelligence activities constitute a very sensitive information environment. Governments must proceed with caution when forming technology partnerships for hardening their IT network security. Melissa E. Hathaway, who in February 2009 was named to be the Obama Administration’s top cyber security official, points out how

Lawful Intercept

Challenge

Criminals, predators and hackers now use chats, blogs, webmail and Internet applications such as online gaming and file-sharing sites to hide their communications.

Solution

Qosmos provides law enforcement agencies with a powerful solution to identify a target using multiple virtual IDs and intercept all related IP- based communications. Any trigger, such as a “user login = target” initiates intercept of all IP traffic related to the “target.”

An analysis of China’s domestic political situation shows how, increasingly, moderates want to take part in the decision-making process. However, they face the all-out opposition of the party, which fears losing its leadership role. Social unrest is just around the corner.

This gap between technical operators and policymakers has not yet led to deep tragedies but soon might. Imagine a fast-moving crisis where one side’s political leadership is calling their counterparts, demanding answers. The other side in the crisis, however, can neither get good answers from their own internal departments about the incident nor willing to confess this to the other nation. They would be both out of control of the situation and seemingly even more guilty in the eyes of the world.

There are many reasons why cyber conflict is considered an awkward and destabilizing national security problem. One of the more overlooked is the gap between the technical elite and senior politicians and policymakers, a disconnect that could become tragic during fast-moving cyber conflicts. While this gap is shrinking in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia, it still is very significant elsewhere. China in particular needs to create better ways to connect their national security decision-makers with their technical incident responders – linking geeks and wonks – to help ensure technical incidents do not escalate out of political control.

The Need to Link Geeks and Wonks

Traditionally, malicious cyber incidents are too often handled as a purely technical matter. Accordingly, deep problems remain because there has been no link between thetribes from, for example, MIT and CalTech and those from the Kennedy School and SAIS. To build cyber cooperation, and manage conflict and competition, the world needs solutions combining the best ideas from both these groups.